Dark Winged Night
by Jondy
Summary: Totally finished! Brin and her sis try to escape Manticore's reach once and for all....after 'Saving Brin' and 'The Massage'
1. Night

Black winged night  
  
By Jondy octavia_hermione@hotmail.com 20.7.01  
  
Summary: Brin and Max finally free themselves from the clutches of Manticore.   
Disclaimer: I own noth-ing. Noth-ing. Just like that guy says nothing in Hogan's Heroes (he he he)  
Author's Notes: This is the sequel to Saving Brin and The Message, and probably the last story I will write in this series. It can be a triple story bonanza. (I knew I would be able to incorporate the word 'bonanza' into one of my stories). But I reckon I probably will write tons more Dark Angel stuff. I am, after all, an insomniac, so I have tons of free time in the middle of the night. But also this year I am doing School Cert (a big big exam that has the potential to ruin my life if I fail it...aahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! ) and I am in FULL PANIC MODE HELP HELP HELP cos I have exams......panic panic panic....we're my prozac......calm calm blue ocean.  
Please review!!!!!!! Puh-lease peeeze pweeaziiieah? You're the bestest ppls eva. Thanks from Jondy  
  
********  
  
Though Max never slept, normally, except when she forced herself to, she found she couldn't now. Whenever she shut her eyes, she saw the reprogramming propaganda. Traitors. Escapees. Cowards. X-5656. X-5599. X-5452. X-5734. X-5338. X-5712. X-5466. X-5219. X-5377. X-5882. X-5542. X-5915. Your duty is to Manticore. Duty. Obedience. Courage. And the pictures - the slides of her and her siblings who had escaped, their nine year old faces looking expressionlessly at the camera.  
  
Sometimes when Max opened her eyes the pictures were still there.  
  
  
********  
  
  
Brin woke suddenly in the middle of the night. Ever since she'd been returned to Manticore she had slept on edge, awakened by small noises, or mumblings, or echoes of things people had once told her.   
  
Next to her, her sister stared at the ceiling, her eyes dark and blank. Someone had once told Brin 'the eyes are the windows to the soul', but after all, everything was turned upside-down at Manticore. After the botched reprogramming of Max, which she managed to resist, and then fool everyone into believing sahe was still loyal to Manticore, Max's eyes hard been sore, puffy, bloodshot and red and filmy. After a while her blank, unemotional, guarded, perfect-soldier posture, manner and expression had spread to her eyes, blocking out the person Brin knew was still in there.  
  
Though there were no mirrors in Manticore, Brin knew she probably looked the same. She often felt like she was Brin inside, while X-5734 controlled her actions and words. But what was happening now? Did the reprogramming fail? It certainly had with Zack and Max, perhaps it was wearing off. Certainly lately X-5734 had been put aside in favour of Brin, though nobody except Max knew.  
  
  
********  
  
  
slowburn   
  
all the while you learn  
slowburn  
all the lies you learn  
slowburn  
  
believe me when I say  
it's a hard pill to take  
my second skin is wearing thin my polished visage aches  
  
it's not the fact I'm a part of that  
it's the thought I'm part of this  
  
behave like someone else and I'm doing it naturally  
one way is not enough but I keep it to myself  
there for no-one else  
  
I keep it to myself  
I keep it to myself  
slowburn  
  
  
********  
  
  
Krit had refused to stay in Seattle.  
  
"I'll just be making more trouble for you," he had said, when Logan tried to insist. Syl watched him go without a word, and told Logan  
  
"He just need to be alone for a while. He ws the same after Brin..." she didn't need to finish the sentence, Logan understood.  
  
Syl stayed on Logan's couch, contacting the other X-5s, making him eat once in a while and watching Logan convince himself that Max was still alive silently, her blue eyes hooded. It was possible, Syl supposed, when Loagan tried to convince her. Manticore was probably one of the most technologically advanced facilities in North America. Perhaps they could have given Max an artificial heart or lung, or maybe they gave her a blood transfusion and fixed it with surgery...Syl shook her head to get rid of those unhelpful thoughts. While it was possible, she had a sinking feeling about Max, and Zack stuck in Manticore.  
  
  
********  
  
  
Logan prepared himself to knock on Original Cindy's door, looking to the two women with him for support. I have to tell her about Max sometime or another, he told himself sternly. While he appreciated Syl's support, when Jondy, another of Max's sisters arrived it had been a bit unexpected. Jondy didn't look like either Max or Syl, and while Syl was identifably caucasian and Max and Krit looked Latino, she looked different. Her eyes were green, but she looked almost Polynesian.  
  
Syl had told him of the conversation she'd had with Jondy after telling her of Max and Tinga's deaths and Zeck's capture.  
  
"I'm coming to Seattle," Jondy had said immediately.  
  
"No, it's too much of a risk..." Syl had started to mimic Zack unintentionally.   
  
"Syl, I don't know about you, but I just lost three of my family. I'm coming," Jondy had said confidently, and arrived a week later. Logan offered her his spare bedroom, but she said she'd stay in a motel. Logan didn't know if she actually had, or if she'd stayed awake the entire week she'd been with them.  
  
Syl gave Logan a small, sad smile now, and Jondy joggled his elbow. Logan knocked, and Original Cindy opened the door. She looked at Syl and Jondy suspiciously, and then looked disbelievingly at Logan.  
  
"We're you in a wheelchair?" she then thought a second, and changed her mind. "Original Cindy ain't even gonna ask. What can I do for you fellas." She glared at Jondy and Syl. Syl looked serene, but Jondy frowned.  
  
"You already replaced my Maxie?" Original asked cuttingly. Jondy's frown became more pronounced, and Syl sighed.  
  
"No way," Syl said. "We're Max's sisters."  
  
"We would never do that to Max!" Jondy said angrily. Syl glared at her and she shut up, pouting a bit.   
  
"How do I know you're telling the truth?" said Original sardonically. "You for sure don't look like Max."  
  
Jondy sighed exasperatedly, gathered up her hair, and twisted around to show Original Cindy her barcode.  
Original Cindy stood there for a minute, before saying "Come on in..."  
  
  
********  
  
  
Strike, block, kick, roll. Strike, block, kick, roll. The mind-numbing training routine repeated and repeated, echoing in Max's mind. Now that Lydecker was no longer at Manticore, there was no-one to train the Manticore-bred soldiers, so Max usually trained with Brin. She would have chosen a more varied and interesting training routine, but Brin had already choosen this one long before Max had started training, so she went along with it.   
Max had just rolled under Brin's kick, but suddenly Brin had stopped moving. She looked up at her sister, standing above her, and was just about to ask a question when Brin gave her a hand to help her up and flitted her eyes over Max's right shoulder.   
  
Max turned, and there was Renfro walking towards them, her cocky smile still plastered on her lips. Max fought down the wave of hate she felt for the woman, and reluctantly stood at attention next to Brin.  
  
"I thought I'd find you here," said Renfro to Brin, smirking. "You are dismissed, X-5452" she said offhandedly to Max, who nodded and walked away, but then made a face at Renfro's back. Brin looked as if she might laugh at the expression, but she forced it down.  
  
  
********  
  
  
"What did the bitch want?" Max hissed to Brin in the corridor, quiet enough so that no listening devices could hear. They were always very careful about that.  
  
"She was saying that I'm going to be put out on assignment soon," Brin said, trying to ignore the despairing look that appeared in Max's eyes when she said this.  
  
"Doing what?"  
  
"I don't know, but I found something out," Brin said, looking more excited than Max had ever seen her in the last few months.  
  
"What?" Max asked, wishing Brin could just tell her, for crying out loud.  
  
"They're going to take the fire-prevention systems off line in the East wing."  
  
Max's eyes widened, and her mouth opened slightly as she contemplated what this could mean.  
  
"And next week then X-7s will be on assignment..." Max continued softly. She looked amazed that such an opportunity had presented itself. Logan could crash the Manticore computers, infect them with a virus, anything. Syl and Krit were nearby, and Lydecker had all the information...it was almost too good to be true.  
  
"Why did she tell you?" Max wondered.  
  
"She trusts me to not tell the others, and keep them in line," said Brin with a wry smile. Max giggled, and they continued their walk to the mess hall.  
  
  
********  
  
  
Logan threw his car keys onto the kitchen table, and Jondy started to take off her jacket. While she bent to look in the fridge, Logan retreated to his study. A few minutes later though, a shout from him had brought both her and Syl running.  
  
"She's alive!" Logan said, beaming.  
  
"How?" Jondy said, a smile breaking out on her face, but Syl tried not to get her hopes up.  
  
"How do you know?" Syl asked. Logan pointed to his computer screen happily, where a small message blinked.  
  
"Are you sure it's from her?" Jondy asked, looking at the small message wonderingly.  
  
"D'you reckon Brin is an ally? Maybe Max's has..." Syl hesitated to say it "been turned."  
  
Jondy looked shocked. "Max would never be turned!"  
  
"We thought Brin wouldn't be, but..."  
  
"Zack wasn't. Brin and Max aren't the same. Max is stronger than any of us, she's got inner strength," Jondy said, while Logan nodded feverently. She looked so sure of it that Jondy had to believe her.  
  
  
********  
  
  
Jondy and Syl spent the next three days looking at plans of Manticore, planning how to get in and out and calling other X-5s to help in trying to get Max out of Manticore. The news of the death of Zack had shaken them as much as the false news of Max's had. Now they were without the protector they'd had all their lives.  
  
Logan spent days hacking into Manticore's computer system, where he monitored the security cameras, and saw Max and Brin, talking and walking, looking very much normal, not some mindless Manticore reprogrammed soldier.   
  
Jondy and Syl saw them too, and began to get their hopes up more.  
  
About three days after that first message, Logan received another one, which cemented their view that Max was alive and well and normal.  
  
Brin 2 go on assignment soon. Fire prevention systems taken off whole of next week eastern half of complex. Set fire 2 manticore and logan infect virus 2 computer system and make crash. Day sent this mssge will arrive. Get lydecker 2 help. X-7s on assignment next 4 days. Bring explosives, guns, sentrys still at manticore  
Max  
  
"Where will we find Lydecker?" Jondy asked. Syl's lips twisted breifly.   
  
"I think I know."  
  
  
********  
  
  
  
Donald Lydecker's life as he once knew it was no more. He had lost two of his kids - the two most brilliant of his kids -, he had no job, he was wanted for murder. All of these seemed very good reasons for having a couple of drinks. Or maybe it was more than a couple - he really couldn't remember.  
  
"Hi, dad," said a sarcastic voice behind him. He spun around jerkily to see two young women - or girls maybe - looking at him distainfully. They looked familiar - Lydecker squinted through the alcohol induced fog that seemed to surround everything.  
  
The blond one - Syl. Oh, god, Syl. Why were they here? And the other one - Tehan? Eva? No, Eva was dead, he'd killed her himself.   
  
Jondy. That was her name. She was talking now, and Lydecker forced himself to concentrate.  
  
"Emotion is weakness, don't you remember, 'Deck'?" she said, laughing humourlessly at him trying to stay upright on his stool.  
  
"What do you want?" he croaked, looking up at the too-impossibly beautiful girls.  
  
"You're coming with us," said Syl, and they pulled him out of the bar and the smoke and the smell.  
  
********  
  
  



	2. Day

I want to believe ****

Black Winged Night

Chapter 2 by Jondy 

The songs used in this story are (in order) _Slowburn_, by stellar*, _Turn off the light_ by Nelly Furtado, _Liquid skies_ by DLT, What you do by stellar* and Every girl by stellar* (I do really like stellar*, in case you couldn't tell)

Please review, 

luv Jondy.

****

__

I want to believe

That I can do it on my own without my heart on my sleeve

I'm running, I'm running, catch up with me life

Where is the love that I'm looking to find

It's all in me, can't you see, I can see, why can't you see it's all in me

****

Everything was going according to plan, but Max was still worried. She and Brin had sent a third message, confirming the day of when they would set fire to the compound, crash and infect the computer systems, kill Renfro and hopefully escape Manticore once and for all. 

She hoped that nothing would go wrong. The last time they had broken into Manticore Max had been captured and Zack, the X-5 who had seemed the most invincible, had died. She didn't want anything like that to happen again.

She pulled nervously at her regulation jacket, trying to get the collar to cover her barcode. Brin helped her tie back her hair every morning, but it wasn't long enough to cover her barcode when it was tied up. Brin nudged her, looking around to see if anyone had noticed that behaviour, strange for a soldier loyal to Manticore. Max dropped her hand from her collar with a small sigh, and thought of Logan and the outside world.

****

Brin nudged Max disapprovingly, and sighed with relief when Max stopped unconsciously trying to cover her barcode. Sometimes Brin had to fight the urge to do that as well, so she normally would have sympathised, but Renfro was only a few metres away. She was having an inspection of the troops, something she did about once a month. Lydecker had done it at least every week. In some ways it was good having such an inattentive director. But in other ways it almost gave the game away. Brin would build up so much more anger each month so that when the inspection finally came around, she had to work extremely hard to conceal her hatred of Renfro, and she had to work even harder to stop Max breaking Renfro's neck whenever she came near.

Though when Brin had been under the hold of Manticore, after her reprogramming, she had never really thought about the outside, now she thought about it every day. Suddenly everything at Manticore seemed cold and grey, and Brin dreamed of the colours on the outside. Red fires blazing, blue skies, greenish haze caused by pollution around cities. A group of kids around an oil puddle, watching the colours change from purple to blue to silver to yellow.

****

__

Free your lies

Never to compromise

Deaf to the cries of distant skies

And I hear neon lights and electric cries under the liquid skies

And I see burning clouds

And fallen stars

Under the liquid skies

****

"He doesn't seem to be as **strong** and _tough_ and _manly_ anymore, does he, Syl?" Jondy asked, a thick layer of sarcasm heaped on the words 'strong', 'tough' and 'manly'.

"Not really," said Syl is a fake innocent sort of voice, shaking her head in pretend disbelief at the man sitting at the kitchen table of Logan's apartment.

Lydecker sat, shielding his eyes against the light, that his former 'children' would just get on with it and explain why they had dragged him here before his head exploded with all the hammering that was going on inside it. Jondy and Syl really seemed to be enjoying torturing the extremely hung-over man.

"What are you doing?" Krit's voice said from behind them, making Lydecker jump. The others took it in stride, turning around smoothly to look at Krit.

"When did you get back?" Syl asked. Krit shrugged, which she supposed meant just now, and gave Jondy a hug.

"Hey little sister," he said, giving her a squeeze. "Hey Syl," he said over Jondy's shoulder. Jondy seemed to notice, and when Krit wasn't looking, winked at Syl. Syl blushed slightly and wished everyone wasn't quite so taken with the fact that her and Krit were together. Krit noticed the blush and gave her a quizzical look, but she just shrugged and turned to Lydecker.

"You're gonna help us break into Manticore again. But this time you aren't gonna play us or anything, you gimp-"

"Why didn't you warn us about the X-7s?" Krit chimed in, moving to stand beside Syl. Jondy looked disbelievingly at normally calm and contained Syl getting so worked up.

"I…I didn't know they would be a problem…" croaked Lydecker, wondering if after he helped them brake in they would tear him to shreds. He wouldn't put it past him.

"You better not screw us over this time, Lydecker," warned Syl. "Max isn't here, so…" 

"There'll be no-one who'll be upset by us using a gun," said Jondy, smiling slightly.

"To blow off your head," finished Krit, leaning in with a steely, uncaring glint in his eye that Zack used to have.

Lydecker look over the possibilities - continue protecting Manticore and have his head blown off, or help destroy it and live a free life, with no-one chasing him for murder. The latter definitely sounded good.

"Give me a map and I'll show you," he said, his voice cracking slightly, sitting up a bit straighter.

****

__

I'm not a stone, I bleed just like you do

I'm flesh and bone, I feel just like you do

no part of me can be immune

would like to be but still I bruise

haven't got a lot to lose

don't be afraid take it like a man

please behave the same way if you can

no bitter tongue will get to me 

and if it did I won't let you see

show the bastards what you mean

so close I can taste it 

I'm ready to please

too close now to fake it

pretending is sweet

I'm down on my knees

I'm dying to

show the bastards what you do

****

The frost crunched under Syl's boots, the cold seeping into her toes, her legs, her body. She ducked behind a tree for a minute to check that her communications link to Logan was still working.

"Logan," she hissed into the device on her shoulder.

"Yeah?" he said. Syl sighed in relief. 

"Nothing, just checking the link is still working."

"Oh, okay," Logan sounded a bit confused, but she didn't care. The worst thing about Manticore was the silence, Syl had always thought. Being here made her feel like she was still 9, and she might get caught for being out of barracks - the Colonel would hear about it, and maybe put her away with the nomalies… Syl said something to break the oppressive silence.

"Lydecker shot through yet?" She asked, half hoping the answer would be yes so she would have something to take out all her anger on, built up over years of Manticore training and hiding and now, most recently, losing her brothers and sisters.

"No," said Logan, and she could hear a smile in his voice "he's here, looking nervous." And Logan actually laughed, which Syl had come to think of as a very rare occurrence. Perhaps when he was with Max he was different.

"Good," said Syl, feeling bizarrely pleased. "You better get started on transferring the virus. Are you already into their computer systems?"

"Yeah. Good luck. Logan out." 

And there was the silence again. Syl craned her neck to try to see Krit or Jondy, but they were most likely well on their way to their destinations already. They'd split up at the perimeter fence. Syl thought of the last thing Jondy had said to her and Krit - "I gotcha back. We're gonna get Max and Brin and destroy this thing that's been plaguing us our whole life. Right?"

"Right," Krit and Syl had answered, and, thinking of that, Syl set off for the Communications Centre in the East Wing, her first stop.

****

Brin and Max were the only ones in the barracks again. Once in a while other X-5s would stay at Manticore for a night or so, but lots stayed on the outside, staying in other Manticore- owned institutions and receiving orders from there. Brin stood at the window in her regulation grey night uniform, looking like she had when they were kids, except now she had long dark hair.

"Can you see anything?" Max asked, moving to stand beside her.

"Not yet-" but Brin had seen a flash of black and green racing across the frost that had settled after about midnight. The moon had a reddish tinge, as if it already knew what would happen tonight, and how much blood would be spilt.

"There." Max had noticed it too. Brin nodded, and they put on the boots they'd hidden in the barracks quickly and quietly, and Brin kicked down the locked door.

****

It was working perfectly - Krit would have picked off most of the guards protecting the outside by now, Syl would have already set explosives in the Communications Centre and Main indoor training area, and from that fires would spread to other areas. Jondy had spread gas through the ground floor of the East Wing, and was now moving up to the third floor to try to find Brin and Max. Hopefully they had already left there barracks, and were on their way to the perimeter fence, but no-one had seen them and Jondy wasn't sure - so here she was now, trying to dodge guards and not always succeeding. Already she'd been forced to render about eleven unconscious.

Jondy listened carefully, and turned the corner, her gun at the ready, only to have it kicked out of her hand. She only saw dimly a shape slightly taller than herself before, twisting, kicking and hearing the thud of her attacker. She stood up and looked at him - obviously a Manticore-bred soldier, but not one she knew. He definitely wasn't one of her siblings, and he seemed weaker and older than any of the X-5s…perhaps X-4? X-3? Jondy knew that the first two lots of X-soldiers had been total failures, but she'd never heard anything about the ones that came between the insane, flesh-eating X-2s and her generation.

Jondy was just pondering this, reaching for her gun, when she was grabbed from behind, her mouth covered and her head yanked to the side.

****

Max and Brin ran as fast as they could through the corridors, sirens going off around them. They'd heard a soldier shouting something into his COM about an explosion in the Communications Centre, before knocking him unconscious. They turned onto the third floor, clattering down the steps, and stopped short when they saw Jondy, Manticore soldiers pressing a gun to her temple. 

****

Krit was starting to get worried. Syl had completed her lot, and so had he, but Jondy hadn't checked in for a while, and Manticore was still ver fire-free in the Eastern half, the most susceptible half.

"Krit," Syl's voice came through to him, sounding worried and almost scared, though no-one apart from him would've detected it.

"I know," Krit said, knowing that Syl probably saw through his fake-brave voice. "We need to complete the mission even if Jondy is gone."

"You sound like Lydecker," Syl said, sounding faintly hurt and very disgusted.

"Alright," Krit gave in, knowing Syl could out-stubborn anyone except Max and Jondy any day. "You get Jondy, I'll start the fires and set the rest of the explosives."

"I'm gonna see you soon," said Syl, sounding grateful, trying to convince herself that she would.

"See ya, pumpkin," Krit said, using the name she hated.

"You're the pumpkin," she muttered, and cut the connection. Krit tried to muffle his laughter in the empty corridor.

****

"Just give her to me," Max said, trying to come closer to Jondy. The second soldier, the one who wasn't holding her sister, pointed his gun at her.

"No." And he smirked, just like Renfro.

"That's an order, soldier!" said Brin in her most authoritive voice. He seemed to waver a bit, but shook it off and kept smiling.

"Not a chance. You're all traitors." Manticore loyalty at its most horrendous. 

Max lunged for him, but before he could shoot, he fell forward, bleeding from a wound in his back, cold and dead. Behind him, Syl stood, soot on her face and hands. Brin looked incredibly grateful, but Max had already turned her attention to the soldier who was holding Jondy. 

There was really no need to. Two punches and a kick from Jondy and he was down. Jondy smirked at Max, who nodded approvingly.

"Impressive," drawled Max, sounding normal, though looking tattered and haunted. 

"I thought so, little sister," Jondy drawled back, and pulled Max and Brin along down the corridor.

"We've got to hurry," yelled Syl, running full out. "We haven't got much time before we're trapped in here - Brin, what the…"

Brin had stopped running where two corridors met, looking at something down one of them. "Renfro," she muttered, starting towards the Director, who was standing, trying hopelessly to access one of the computer panels attached to the wall.

"Brin," Syl was tugging at her sleeve, trying to get her to keep running. Max and Jondy stood a little further away, pleading looks on their faces.

"No, I have to do something…" Brin wrenched her arm out of Syl's grasp. Her sisters didn't move, so she looked at Max, pleading. Max nodded, sadly, understandingly.

"Go on," Brin told them. "I'll meet you at the perimeter fence."

Max nodded again, and backed away, pulling Jondy with her. Syl looked at Brin again, but Brin nodded her on encouragingly, and her sister finally followed Max and Jondy. When Brin was sure they had started to run again, she turned to Renfro.

****

Krit waited at the perimeter fence, looking for any sign of Syl or his sisters. Where the hell were they?

****

Renfro looked up, her face looking relieved to see Brin. Brin kept on walking towards her slowly, hating her more and more with each step.

"Oh, good, it's you. What's a safe way out?" Renfro demanded, running a hand through her perfectly styled hair.

"I'm not going to help you," Brin said quietly, her face hard and angry, her eyes obsidian chips.

"What?" Renfro almost screeched, but lowered her voice slightly.

"You killed Tinga," accused Brin, wanting to cry. Renfro straightened her jacket fussily, shrugging.

"She was just an experiment. She was born that way, and that's how she d-" 

Brin hurled herself at Renfro, hating her, hating the way she used the past tense, how she talked of her sister's death so off-handedly. 

When Brin stopped, Renfro was on the ground, dead or unconscious, she didn't want to know. If she wasn't dead, the smoke inhalation will probably kill her, Brin though morbidly.

And Brin ran.

****

Max looked at Brin with relief as she pulled the door of Logan's car shut behind her. Jondy looked over at her and grinned, saying "Lets go."

Syl wrapped her arms around Brin, and they both watched Manticore go up in flames.

****

__

the side effect for every girl

I'm letting moonlight have wicked way tonight

educate me, compensate me for living life amongst the shadows

****

Max sat contentedly beside Logan up at her own high place, free at last from the spectre that had haunted her her whole life. Manticore was destroyed, the complex, the computer systems, the people who worked for it, and the decades of research that had gone into making soldiers like Max. _Imperfect soldiers_. That thought was a comfort now.

They watched the black-winged night getting chased across the sky by golden-cloaked day.

****

THE END! I can't believe I actually finished it! And it didn't take me forever! Yay! Please tell me what you think of it, and thanks to all the luvly ppl who reviewed all my other Dark Angel stories. Thanks from Jondy.


End file.
